“This Enormous Army”: The Mutual Aid Tradition of American Fraternal Societies before the Twentieth Century

Beito, David T.

doi:10.1017/s0265052500001801

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(1 reference statement)

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“…First, in the USA friendly societies were part of a broader category of 'fraternal' organizations. 163 The native Oddfellows orders of the USA were more closely related to the masons, secret societies, and fraternal brotherhoods than were British friendly societies. This was particularly the case when it came to ritual practices, an issue that led the US lodges of the MU to break away from the society in Britain in the 1840s.…”

Section: Centripetal and Centrifugal Forcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The friendly planet: ‘Oddfellows’, networks, and the ‘British World’c.1840–1914

Downing¹

2012

Journal of Global History

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British clubs and societies spread around the English-speaking world in the long nineteenth century. This article focuses on one particularly large friendly society, the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows (MU), which by 1913 had more than a thousand lodges around the world, especially concentrated in Australia and New Zealand. The MU spread so widely because of micro-social and macro-social forces, both of which this article investigates. It also examines the transfer of members, funds, and information between different districts of the society, and argues that such transfers may have smoothed internal and long-distance migration.

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Section: Centripetal and Centrifugal Forcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The friendly planet: ‘Oddfellows’, networks, and the ‘British World’c.1840–1914

Downing¹

2012

Journal of Global History

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“…44 David Beito's assessment of the 160 oath-bound, lay-controlled voluntary confraternities of fifteenth-century London concluded that 'in theory and to a great extent in reality, confraternities were democratic and egalitarian'. 45 One of the arguments for the extension of the franchise in the UK in 1867 was that working men had demonstrated their acceptability through their associational activities. 46 The UK-based Ancient Order of Foresters Friendly Society recommended that members be sober and industrious in order to 'purchase your own electoral rights' while in 1869 a British MP argued that 'these societies are teaching men the duties of citizenship'.…”

Section: Daniel Weinbrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seven Hundred Years of Fraternal Orders

Weinbren¹

2010

Gender and Fraternal Orders in Europe, 1300–2000

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For hundreds of years there has been an allure in popular culture to the notion of a band of brothers. From before Shakespeare's Henry V, through Schiller's Wilhelm Tell, to the twenty-first century TV mini-series Band of Brothers, the phrase has evoked images of men fiercely loyal to one another, united for a cause greater than themselves. This interest has not been reflected in concerted scholarly attention to the long-term influence of fraternal organizations. This chapter introduces the theme of the volume in a literature review and contextualizes the authors' contributions.The aim of this volume is to conceptualize fraternal organizations and to emphasize the significance of their roles in both transforming and being changed by European societies over many centuries. It explores the significance of the links between rituals, secrecy, hierarchy and the maintenance of gendered roles over a period of several hundred years enabling new comparisons to be made and wider social mores to be reconfigured. No single associational form can encompass British friendly societies, French fraternal bodies, Lerwick's 'Vikings' and Flemish 'parrot' shooters. However, if we classify them as siblings, the similar aspects of their responses to common threats and comparable opportunities emerge in a new light. There are studies of such bodies as the convent-based Youth Confraternity of the Purification of the Virgin (which had an important economic role and spread ideas about the importance of public, political and religious duties), the confraternities of early modern Florence and Bologna (which prepared abandoned children for civic life and family roles), the German regional student fraternities, Landsmannschaften (with their duelling ritual and rules about the order of meetings and the colours to be worn on armbands and sashes) and the fraternal associations which helped men to form communities in nineteenth-century America. 1 In

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“…The fraternities of the 18th and 19th centuries used collective action to develop systems of social protection. 249 Working-class movements were able to establish greater capacity, empowerment and mutual support through collective action. These aspects were particularly important for the understanding of fraternity.…”

Section: Collective Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liberty, equality, fraternity

Stephen¹

2005

Choice Reviews Online

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“This Enormous Army”: The Mutual Aid Tradition of American Fraternal Societies before the Twentieth Century

Cited by 5 publications

References 15 publications

The friendly planet: ‘Oddfellows’, networks, and the ‘British World’c.1840–1914

The friendly planet: ‘Oddfellows’, networks, and the ‘British World’c.1840–1914

Seven Hundred Years of Fraternal Orders

Liberty, equality, fraternity

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